In this world, mentor ship is good thing to have. It is good to know what is expected in life in certain careers and professions. An array of mentors from Parents, Teachers, and Friendships to figure out how to have success. Examples are: Floyd Mayweather Sr./ Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bill Parcels/ Bill Belichick, and even Daniel San and Mr. Miyagi! The second game of the Tulsa Desperados and Chicago Wildcats proved that it doesn’t matter if I beat you by numerous scores or by 1,2,3 points. I still beat you… the experience,highly vetted teacher, and coach… you know the mentor. On Dion Hawkins farewell tour, Tulsa wanted to make sure they prove what “Prime” has learned from his former Eastern Conference Championship team. Espnn Ry’ale, as well was not taking this game lightly after the win of last week against OKC. He stated to me” I’m ready to have a better week, let’s see what y’all can do.” The swag was on a 1000% and these boys came in ready to throw down!
Season 8 Coach of the Year Shann Varner, and the Wildcats were slightly shell shocked after losing Season 9 Championship, losing key personnel, and taking a brutal loss to the Gladiators last week in front of the sold out home opening crowd. The defense has been decent with keeping opposing offensive somewhat in check. The offense has been dreadful and would definitely need some fresh or grass fed red meat to help get these Wildcats going.
Now, it is hard to win a football game in the SFL and its easy to lose in this league from jump, add the new player progression system and you got a tall order to fill.
The Dojo
After winning the coin toss,Chicago choose to kick to Tulsa and they started out on the 30 yard line. Rookie QB Sir Charles Robinson threw a quick pass to the TE Damon McIntosh only to be broken up Rockafella. Desperados manage to get a first down with a middle slant to WR Danny Knighten into midfield at the 48. Dion Hawkins caught a pass for 2 yards and then Robinson wanted to prove that he has an arm. On the next play he went for a deep pass to WR Koury Jones which was broken by Rockafella. 3rd & 8 Robinson went back to Jones for the same play and it looked like Rockafella was still feeling good about the previous play. This time while the defender was celebrating and looking in the stands, Jones scored a 50 Touchdown on a blown coverage. The drive took 2:00 minutes.
Chicago got the ball back and started at the 27. It was finally ET King’s turn to make up from the last game of 3 turnovers and being sacked 2 times. Chicago wanted to try and get J Calvin Kim rolling. ET gave JCK the ball and he ran to the 40 yard line being tackle by OLB Kyron Hill and ILB Gus Jones. The rest of Tulsa defense stop the movement stuffing the run and deflecting passes. Tulsa gets the ball back and continue to grind only to get cut down by Wildcats and wind up kicking back to the Chi. Tulsa would stop the run forcing Chicago to punt from the 19, they started out this drive on the 15. The Desperados made it down to the CHI redzone only to fall short to a 26 yard FG by K Joseph Carroll. ET, the offense could not get anything going, ending 1st quarter. 10-0.
ET tried to jump start this offense with a slant pass to Kendall Gilbert in which he was bumped by CB Charles Ball but still caught it for a 1st down. ET gets sacked by DT Nickolai Romanov. Attempted pass to Reid was foiled by Espnn and Ball bobbling for the ball. The punting team comes in and the Special Teams made a play that place the ball on Tulsa 3 by SS Neil Patel. Wildcats secondary started playing a little harder as SS AJ Barnes and FS Maurice Spurgeon were making stops on Hawkins while he was getting a 1st down. 7 minutes remaining in the 2 quarter and Hawkins makes a power run and stiff armed ILB Brett Tillis, but was then struck hard by CB Blake Hamrac out of frustration. Things picking up as Robinson decides to go back again deep to Koury Jones only this time Kanye was paying attention and got a interception. In the OKC game Robinson had thrown for 304 yards with 2 Touchdown and 2 Interceptions. Keep testing that arm youngster. Now,it was time hit pay dirt before the half to feel good about yourselves. It was 5:26 remaining, after a 3 and out there was 4:26 remained and the ball from the pick originally started at CHI 48 and ended at TUL 49. Before halftime the Robinson to Robinson connection was beginning to establish with a pass caught then out of bounds. Sir Charles would take another shot down field in the middle to Sonzo only to get intercepted by Spurgeon along with good coverage by Hamrac. With 53 seconds left, Chicago still could not get on board. They gave the ball back to Tulsa with 19 seconds remaining. Chi DE Spears would close the half with a sack. The Half, The Desperados controlled the time of possession 13 minutes with passing of 118, a Touchdown and rushing of 90 yards. The Wildcats had 36 yards passing and 17 rushing. This back and fourth would happen for the remaining of the game until the fourth quarter and King would hit a angry Kendall Gilbert in a great catch followed by a spectacular run after catch Ju Ju Smith-Schuster type of play into the endzone for a Touchdown. CB Jeff Desir was embarrassed by that play. 2nd 10-0.
Most of the 3rd and 4th quarter was running plays by Dion and go to passes for Sonzo Robinson. Defenses on both teams played solid and several players made nice plays. Tulsa defense ballers Espnn Ry’Ale and DT Griffin Brown both had a tackle for loss with a couple of assists. CB Nate Hezlep was mostly quiet this game compared to the last game in which he had 9 tackles and a pick. This game he had 3 tackles and a interception. SS Charles Ball would be player of the game with his ending the game pick with 5 tackles 4 pass deflections and 2 interceptions. The offense finished with Dion Hawkins 38 carries for 138 yards averaging 3.6 yards a carry with longest run of 16 yards and 16 yards receiving. Sonzo Robinson with 7 receptions for 97 yards and Koury Jones with 2 receptions for 54 yards and a Touchdown. Sir Charles Robinson finished with 17 completions and 205 yards 1 Touchdown and 2 Interceptions and a couple of sacks. K Joseph Carroll confidence is not blown from his two miss field goals in OKC. He made both of them in this game.
The Wildcats finished with the defense total tackles of 42 which double the total from Tulsa. Week 1 Clint Hendershot was leading tackles with 11 against STL. This past week’s leader was AJ Barnes with 13 and 3 for losses. Maurice Spurgeon had 9 tackles and a pick. Ajamu Afolabi was active with 5 tackles along with Blake Hamrac’s 4 tackles. Rockafella finished with 6 tackles, 1 pick and a deflection. The staggering offense had Kendall Gilbert with 3 balls his way for 97 yards and a 54 yard Touchdown. JCK carried the rock for 51 yards and led receptions with 9.ET was slanging up footballs to Desperados like they were bean pies with 3 interceptions and 219 yards. It is ashamed.
Final Score: TUL 13 CHI 7
Outlaws keep riding.This game would have been really impressive if Dion would have gotten a Touchdown, but that did not happen and they still won the game. The impressiveness comes in with Tulsa being ranked number 2 in the Central Conference and being ranked 5th overall in the league. This turned out to be a 2nd road win for this expansion team. If they could crank up the offense a notch and continue to develop star players. This organization will be special moving forward. The saying in there camp is #weball.
Chicago loses at home again and continues to struggle to make this thing right for the team,for the city, and for the fans. They need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask how can I get better for my team? Again this player progression has gotten the league shook up a little bit. How do you go to the Championship game last season and start this new season 0-2? We will find out Monday night as MXC comes to town and take on the CHI. If this isn’t a wake up call for the slow and sluggish start of the season. They need to play Chicago Wildcats football and turn it around.
*Neither running back from TUL AND CHI has yet to score a rushing touchdown.
*Both teams 3rd down percentage is under 50 percent.
*Chicago has been held scoreless in various quarters in week 1 and 2.
* Chicago has lost close games: 3 points STL 6 points TUL
* Tulsa has held teams in week 1 and 2 scoreless in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
Mentors can help guide you to be successful. Did I mentioned that Dion has had other mentors? Yeah, he also had @darthdestromd and @drsim80 in his corner.
The Dion Hawkins farewell playa tour continues as Tulsa 2-0 is home for a conference opponent as they welcome the 2-0 Indianapolis Red Devils to Greenwood District Stadium SFL Sunday Fan night presentation.
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